For years, Mia has felt that she didn’t fit in, struggling to find a place to belong. Mia’s mother first sought help for her daughter when she was just five years old and had developed an exact ritual for each morning. Within months, she was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but both Mia and her mother felt the diagnosis was wrong. “When you’re a seven-year-old child and you can’t properly understand why you feel so different and so isolated, it’s obviously going to impact you growing up,” Mia recalls. She and her mother became convinced she was on the autism spectrum, but initial screenings did not trigger a formal assessment.
Mia’s life is a familiar story for families who have struggled to receive mental health support that leaves them feeling like their concerns were downplayed or dismissed. According to an analysis of NHS data, more than half of young people who receive psychiatric support finish their course of treatment with no improvement in their health. The number of young people reporting poor mental health rose from one in nine to one in five between 2017 and 2023, with only a third able to access treatment, according to a report by Mind.
Years of inconsistent help followed for Mia, including occasional eight-week sessions of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and cancelled appointments. “Such care is inherently complex and we regret that her difficulties continued to escalate,” Whittington Health said. Mental health services are struggling with recruitment and the right mix of staff, according to the Care Quality Commission, which also encourages the NHS to “actively involve parents in their child’s care decisions” while addressing their concerns promptly.
Mia has recently attempted suicide, which left her with severe spinal injuries. As a result, she has been left paraplegic and wheelchair-bound. Mia now says she no longer wants to be pitied; rather, she wants to feel “ordinary”. She hopes to have the confidence to face the outside world one day and says: “One day, I’m going to be proud of myself… That’s what I’m looking towards, a place where I can be proud at how much I’ve overcome.”
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